Oil well sand pumps



W- F. M MAHON OIL WELL SAND PUMPS Dec. 8, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 14, 1958 x 2 no 1 1 1 1 w w \\VX\\\\\ O O O O n o m m 3 4 w w ED H W W 2 w. F. MOMAHON 2,915,987

on. man. SAND PUMPS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 w mf Dec. 8, 1959 Filed April 14, 1958 United States Patent oIL WELL SAND PUMPS William Frederick McMahon, Riverside, Calif. Application April 14, 1958 Serial No. 728,324

9 Claims. (Cl. 103-260) My invention relates to improvements in sand pumps constructed to efiiciently remove sand from oil wells during the process of producing petroleum from subterranean oil formations.

An object of my invention is to provide a new and useful construction adapted to be located in an oil well for the purpose of removing sand from deep subterranean oil formations in a more efiicient manner.

A main object of my improvement is to provide a new and useful sand pump construction for oil wells.

An object of my improvement is to provide an oil well sand pump which is less prone to become gas locked or sand-plugged.

An important object of my invention is to apply with greater efficiency the principle of the venturi-tube to the construction of an oil well sand pump, to recover petroleum from oil wells.

Another important object of this invention is to provide a means to effect a greater recovery of petroleum from a subterranean oil formation by use of an improved oil well sand pump.

With these and other objects in view, the invention resides and consists in the construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and pointed out in the claims hereto appended, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportion, design, size and details of construction may be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departure from the spirit or intent of this invention.

Similar characters of reference denote like or corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and upon which:

Fig. l is a longitudinal sectional view through the entire working mechanism of the oil well sand pump, showing the same attached to a string of tubing.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken upon the section line AA of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken upon the section line B-B of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section taken upon the section line C--C of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section taken upon the section line D-D of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a full size longitudinal sectional view of the entire main working part of the oil well sand pump, showing an assembly of fixed parts adapted to entrain sand and petroleum from an oil well.

Fig. 7 is an elevational view of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a horizontal section through the inlet of the pump taken upon the section line E-E of Figure 7.

Referring in detail to the characters of reference marked upon the drawings, 1 represents an elongated cylindrical steel casting having an outer diameter which permits it to go into a conventional oil well casing or liner.

I have not illustrated an oil well with its conventional casing and linear because an oil well construction is so well known that the illustrating of the same is believed to be superfluous, and because my improvement resides mainly in the construction shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings.

Casting 1 is connected with equipment used on the surface of the earth by strings of concentric outer and inner tubing 2 and 3 respectively.

Tubing 2, has threaded connection 4 with the internally threaded upper portion 20 of the casting 1, and extends therefrom to the surface of the earth. This casting 1 is usually extended to the vicinity of the bottom of an oil well.

Inner tubing 3 is connected by coupling 5 to a tapered sleeve 6. In practice this inner tubing 3 is connected with a pressure pump, not shown, and of any suitable character and which is located on the surface of the earth, and serves to convey a liquid under pressure from the said pressure pump into and through the tapered body, tube or sleeve 6.

Tapered sleeve 6 is an elongated cylinder having a tapered outer diameter arranged to seat into a tapered seat 7 provided in an inwardly projecting portion of the casting 1. I have made the said tapered outer diameter 8, see also Figures 6 and 7, with an inch and 'a half taper per foot. This tapered sleeve 6 comprises an upper tapered portion 9 and a lower tapered portion 10 coupled together by a tapered coupling 11.

This coupling 11 forms an important element in this improved oil well sand pump of which the said tapered sleeve 6 may be said to be the main or sole working part and the casting 1 used simply to direct the flow of liquid to and from the surface of the earth and from the oil deposits in the earth. The coupling 11 provides a chamber 12 which is concentric to a tungsten-carbide insert nozzle 13 and tungsten-carbide insert venturi-fiare 14. This chamber 12 provides a spaced relationship or critical distance between the said nozzle 13 and venturiflare 14 while providing a transverse slot or inlet 15 for the entrainment of sand from the oil well into the venturifiare 14 hence into casting 1. Coupling 11 also has concentric threaded engagements 16 and 17 respectively with the upper portion 9 and lower portion 10 of tapered sleeve 6, and serves to couple said portions 9 and 10 in fixed longitudinal relationship. The outer diameter 18 of coupling 11 will have the same taper as that of the tapered seat 7 in the intermediate inwardly projecting portion of casting 1. Opposed and beveled seats 19 are provided in coupling 11 communicating with opposite ends of the chamber 12 to centralize the concentric relationship of nozzle 13 and venturi-flare 14 and are arranged to permit easy replacement of either the nozzle 13 or venturi-fiare 14 as and when needed in order that the utility of the tapered sleeve 6 may be further enhanced. Lead gaskets 31 are provided to seal off the coupling 11 relative to the nozzle 13 and venturi-fiare 14.

Thus this tapered sleeve 6 constitutes the oil well sand pump and is only about eight inches long and less than two inches in diameter.

The small size of the main part of the sand pump enables it to be carried in the average size glove compartment of an automobile. At this time it should be noted that regardless of its small size my improved oil well sand pump can be used to better advantage in ninety five percent of the oil wells now in existence in this country as compared with the conventional oil well sand pumps now in use and which conventional sand pumps are from twenty feet to forty feet in length as compared to my improvement which is less than one foot in length and has no moving parts when being operated.

This short length of my oil well sand pump enables it to be used to a greater advantage in crooked or whipstocked oil wells than conventional sand pumps which are from twenty to forty times longer. This feature alone affords an important improvement and advantage over sand pumps now used in the art for cleaning sand out-of oil-wells.'- Thelonger length of'conventional sandpumps makes'it difficult to'lowe'r the long'sandrpumps into casing which has been whipstocked 'at a shaip'angle; This short-length sand pump improvement serves" to eliminate thedanger of thesand pump becoming stuck in the oil well casingwhich has been whipstocked;

As before stated the tapered'sleeve 6"is arranged to be lowered from the earths surface, by means of'the' stringvof inner tubing 3, until it reaches and is seated uponrthe seats 7 in casting 1.

Casting 1 is an elongatedsteel casting cylindrical in formation having upper and lower tapered seats 7farranged to receive-thetaperedsleeve 6: The tapered seats 7 are inthe center of casting 1*and are concentrically located therein relative to the-outside diameter of casting 1. Casting 1 comprises three chambers namely an upper chamber 21, a center chamber 22, and a lower chamber 23. The lower chamber 23 has threaded engagement 24 with an anchor tubing 25 which is closed on its lower end by'a bull plug which is not shown in the drawings. The center'chamber 22 provides an entrance passageway, through flap valve 29 into the slot 15, for sand and petroleum entrained from oil deposits in the oil well. Sand enters casting 1 through flap valve 29 and flows into'center chamber'22 from which it moves into the slot or inlet passageway 15 of the chamber 12 of the tapered sleeve 6 and is moved into and through the venturi-flare 14 from which it moves into the lower chamber 23 and tubing 25. From the said lower cham ber 23 and tubing 25, the sand is moved in' an upward direction up through the cored passageways 26, see Figures 'l, 3, 4 and 5, in casting 1 to the upper chamber 21 from whence the said sand enters into the annulus chamher 27, see Figures 1 and 2, formed by the inside diameter of tubing 2 and the outside diameter of tubing 3. The sand from the oil well is then moved upward through this said annulus chamber 27 to some tank, not shown, located on the surface of earth.

When the tapered sleeve 6 is seated in casting 1 there is formed two columns, for liquid to flow' in this system, so provided by the cored passageways 26 and the'internal fluid passageway 28 is the center of tapered sleeve 6. For example, when the system is operating,-liquid under pressure is forced downward through inner tubing 3 and screen 30 into fluid passageway 28 and through nozzle 13 at which place the said liquid attains a speed of from about five hundred to one thousand feet per second. This speed of liquor serves to convert pressure in the inlet passageway 15 into a partial vacuum causing sand and fluid from the oil well to be drawn into chamber 22through the flap valve 29 and thence into the said inletpassageway 15; a

From passageway 15, the said entrained sand and fluid together with the liquid passing below the nozzle 13 enters into the opposed venturi-flare 14 whichislarger in diameter and area than the orifice formed in nozzle 13.

The speed of the combined fluids and solid's' entering into venturi-fiare 14 ranges from two hundred-to about six hundred feet per second.

The ratio of the volume of liquid forced under pressure through nozzle 13 in relation to the volume of fluids and solids entrained into inlet passageway 15 averages about four to one. For example, for every four gallons of--liquidforced through the nozzle 13, one gallon of liquid is entrained from the oil well into the'said inlet passageway 15. This results in four gallons passingout of the nozzle 13 and five gallons entering into the opposedventuri-flare 14 in order to efiiciently operate this sand pump. While slight variations of'these volumes maybe resorted to, I have found this said ratio of proportion to bejmost efiicient.

It is from the above mentioned velocities"of fluids and respective said ratio of proportions of volumes of enters the venturi-flare 14 together with the said four volumes of clear liquid. This means that While the volume of sand entering into the inlet passageway 15 was forty percent of the volume of liquid entrainedifrom the oil well formation, this same volume of sand is reduced to or becomes o'nlyeight percent (8%) of the total volume of liquid entering into the venturi-flare 14. It

is because of this percentage-wise reduction in the proportion of sand by volume that I am able to reduce wear on the venturiflare'14 to a minimum. 7

In all other sand 'pumps for oil wells of which I am aware, the volume of the sand-handled throughout the;

, pumping system remains constant in proportion to the sand and liquid entrained from the oil well formation. Thusly,'instead of the sand being reduced to eight percent as above describedin my sand pump, the sand remains forty percent by. volume in heretofore sand pumps. This reductionin' the" proportionof sand by volume is an important object of my improvement.

Because of the depths ofoil' wells, many being eight thousand feet or more, a deciding economic factor in sand pump is its length of operating life. To replace a sand pump in an eight thousand foot oil well, means that eightthousand feet of tubing mustbe withdrawn from'the oil'well. A sand pump isgenerallyreplaced because it has been worn out due to the abrading action of the sand handled by the sand pump. As before stated,.my said improvement'reduces the necessity of having to withdrawthe tubing in an oil well during the cleaning out operation required to remove the sand therein. During this cleaning out operation, oil is constantly being pumped by the sand pump. In other words, the production of oil from the oil well is not stopped during thefcleaning out time of operation. Heretofore during a cleaning out operation of an oil well the production of oil was stopped during this time of operation.

It should be also noted that my improvement resides mainly in the construction and'result due to the tapered sleeve 6. In this tapered unit 6, the only part subject to Wear is theventuri-lare insert 14. This means that the sand pump is constructed so that the only ele ment subject to wear by the sand being pumped is the small part or element 14.

To replace this element 14; without having to withdraw the tubingl or the casting 1 from the oil well, I simply withdraw the inner tubing 3, to which is attached the tapered sleeve 6, fro-m the oil well. Then I unscrew the lower portion element 10 from the coupling 11 and remove the worn out venturi-flare insert 14 and replace 7 it with a new one.

The .parts are reassembled-as they were originally and again lowered into the casting 1 located in the oil well This speedy replacement construction is also not found in heretofore sand pumps for oil wells.

Having des'ci'ibed my invention what I claim is:

1. In an oil well sand'purnp adapted to be operated by liquid pumped under pressure, a tapered sleeve formed as an elongated tapered cylinder comprisingxan upper portion having an outwardly extended threaded lug internally bored,.a tungsten-carbide nozzle insert position therein,- alower portion having anoutwardly extending threaded lug internally. bored and receiving therein a tungsten-carbide venturi-fiareinsert, a coupling internally threaded on both ends for threaded engagement with the "said upperand lower portions and adapted to holdthe said portions together and in axial 'alinernent, an inlet chamberc'e'ntrally located in said coupling andhaving a passageway communicating with the exterior of said coupling and having an upper and lower wall with a recess in each wall adapted to hold the respective opposing ends of the said tungsten-carbide inserts a fixed distance apart and in axial alinement, said upper and lower portions having passage means extending longitudinally therethrough and through said inserts to communicate with said inlet chamber and therewith provide an internal fluid passageway throughout the length of the tapered sleeve.

2. A combination as defined in claim 1 including an elongated casting connected with oil well tubing and having tapered seats therein receiving said tapered sleeve.

3. A combination as defined in claim 1 including an elongated casting connected with oil well tubing and having a tapered seat concentrically located therein and receiving said tapered sleeve.

4. A combination as defined in claim 1 including oil well tubing connected with said tapered sleeve to convey liquid under pressure to the tapered sleeve.

5. A combination as defined in claim 1 including a perforated screen having threaded engagement with the tapered sleeve for screening fluid entering the internal fluid passageway in the tapered sleeve.

6. An oil well sand pump comprising a body casing of sufficiently small diameter to be received in a well bore, an outer string of tubing, said casing being at its upper end connected to and communicating with said outer string of tubing by which well fluids including entrained sand is conducted from the well bore to the surface, said casing having spaced tapered seats therein, a jet pump including a tapered body slidably received in said casing and engaged in said tapered seats, a string of inner tubing disposed in said outer tubing and connected to and communicating with the upper end of said tapered body for delivering a liquid under pressure thereto from the surface, an intermediate member, said body having upper and lower tubular members coupled together by said intermediate member, upper and lower venturi inserts in said upper and lower tubular members, said intermediate member having an inlet chamber therein receiving the adjacent aligned ends of said inserts in fixed spaced relation, means establishing communication between said inlet chamber and the exterior of said casing for inducting well liquids with entrained sand into the liquid flowing through said body, a passage means in said body casing, the exit end of said lower venturi insert communicating through said passage means with said outer string of tubing.

7. The combination of claim 6 wherein the entrance of the lower venturi insert is of greater cross-sectional area than that of the exit of the upper venturi insert whereby to afford adequate area for the flow of the fluid received from the inner string of tubing and the well fluid inducted into said chamber through said means establishing communication.

8. The combination of claim 6 wherein said venturi inserts are of tungsten carbide.

9. The combination of claim 6 wherein said inlet chamber completely surrounds the adjacent ends of said inserts and is in continuous communication with the space between the adjacent ends of the inserts.

McMahon May 18, 1937 McMahon Apr. 19, 1938 

